Checking the Facts: Democratic U.S. Senate Debate

Democratic U.S. Senate candidates Chris Murphy and Susan Bysiewicz appeared in Bridgeport Sunday in a debate less than four weeks before the state’s Aug. 14 primary. They talked about the need to fix the economy, improve the nation's health care system, and tighten gun control. But did they fight fair? The Courant has checked a few of those statements for fact.

Bysiewicz, on gun control: "In Colorado, this past year, more people died by gun violence than in car accidents."

Mostly true. The most recent year for which comprehensive Colorado statistics appear to be available is 2010, not 2011. According to a report for 2010 from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, more deaths were caused by firearms (553) than by unintentional motor vehicle crashes (480).

Murphy, on improving the economy: "Eight percent of this state is unemployed today and yet we are losing our share of manufacturing jobs to the rest of the world. I don't think we can survive if we don't make things here."

Mostly true. A report this month from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that Connecticut's state unemployment rate was 8.1 percent in June, up from 7.8 percent the month before. And state statistics show that manufacturing jobs in Connecticut have fallen by almost 50 percent since 1990.

But how much danger does that drop in manufacturing pose to the U.S. economy? In a March article for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, University of Michigan economics professor Mark J. Perry used United Nations economic data to show that the U.S. drop in manufacturing is not a recent phenomenon — it's been in progress since 1970, a period that has included both ups and downs for the U.S. economy, including the high points of the mid-1990s and the mid-2000s.

Bysiewicz, on the need for financial regulation: "Look what happened with J.P. Morgan very recently. Jamie Dimon came before Congress and said, 'Oops, sorry, we just lost $5.3 billion of consumer money.'"

Not quite. Bysiewicz is referring to congressional testimony by J.P. Morgan & Chase Co. CEO Jamie Dimon after it was reported that his firm lost billions of dollars on trades by its London office.

The Wall Street Journal has reported that those losses have grown to at least $5.8 billion.

In mid-June, Dimon himself appeared before the House Financial Services committee. According to a written copy of some of his testimony, Dimon did say of the trades: "we have let a lot of people down, and we are sorry for it." But Dimon also emphasized that the people who lost money were not the company's customers, but its shareholders, because the company's stock price has fallen — 16 percent from May through mid-July, according to the London-based Financial Times.

Murphy, talking about health care spending: "We spend twice as much money on health care in this country as any country in the world."

Not quite. After the debate, Murphy's campaign provided statistics from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, an international group with a membership that includes 34 industrialized countries. Those statistics show that the U.S. did spend more on a per-capita basis (about $7,960) in 2009 than any other OECD country. And it's true that that figure is more than double the average per-capita annual spending among OECD countries ($3,233). But Murphy clearly said the U.S. spends twice as much as any country in the world, which the statistics don't quite bear out. Norway, which is second behind the U.S. in health expenditures, spends $5,352 on an annual per-capita basis on health care.

NOTE: An earlier version of this story said incorrectly that Sunday's debate would likely be their last. They are scheduled to debate each other on July 30 at the Garde Arts Center in New London.